{"id":2830,"date":"2022-10-18T01:30:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T01:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/?p=2830"},"modified":"2022-10-18T01:44:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T01:44:32","slug":"more-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/?p=2830","title":{"rendered":"More Burns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"981\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ab5f80e6730865ff9bee1aa33e88ed641.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2858\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ab5f80e6730865ff9bee1aa33e88ed641.jpg 736w, https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ab5f80e6730865ff9bee1aa33e88ed641-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Burns&nbsp;are injuries of the skin involving the two layers: the thin, outer epidermis and the thicker, deeper dermis. 86% of&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are caused by thermal injury, while about 4% are electrical and 3% are chemical.  A variety of factors guides the evaluation and management of&nbsp;burns. First is the type of burn such as thermal, chemical, electrical or radiation. Second is the extent of the burn usually expressed as the percentage of total body surface area (%TBSA) involved. Next is the depth of the burn described as superficial (first degree), partial (second degree) or full thickness (third degree).  Finally, other factors include specific patient characteristics like the age of the patient (&lt; 10 or &gt; 50 years old); other medical or health problems; if there are specialized locations of the burn (face, eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet and perineum); and if there are any associated injuries, particularly smoke inhalation and other traumatic injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burn<strong>s<\/strong>&nbsp;may be caused by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Abuse<\/li><li>Chemicals such as strong acids, lye, paint thinner or gasoline<\/li><li>Electric currents<\/li><li>Fire<\/li><li>Hot liquid<\/li><li>Hot metal, glass or other objects<\/li><li>Steam<\/li><li>Radiation from x-rays<\/li><li>Sunlight or ultraviolet light<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Approximately 86% of&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are caused by thermal injury, while about 4% are electrical and 3% are chemical. Flame and scald&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are the leading cause of&nbsp;burns&nbsp;in children and adults. More adults are injured with flame&nbsp;burns&nbsp;while children younger than five years old are more often injured with scald&nbsp;burns. Burn injuries more commonly affect people of low and middle income and people in&nbsp;low-income countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burns&nbsp;are injuries of the skin involving the two main layers &#8211; the thin, outer epidermis and the thicker, deeper dermis. There are various types of&nbsp;burns. Chemical&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are divided into acid or alkali&nbsp;burns. Alkali&nbsp;burns&nbsp;tend to be more severe causing more penetration deeper into the skin by liquefying the skin (liquefaction necrosis). Acid&nbsp;burns&nbsp;penetrate less because they cause a coagulation injury (coagulation necrosis). Electrical&nbsp;burns&nbsp;can be deceiving with small entry and exit wounds, however, there may be extensive internal organ injury or associated traumatic injuries. Thermal&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are the most common type of burn. Most&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are small and superficial causing only local injuries. However,&nbsp;burns&nbsp;can be larger and deeper, and patients can also have a systemic response to severe&nbsp;burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The major factors to consider when evaluating the burned skin are the extent of the&nbsp;<strong>burns<\/strong>&nbsp;(usually calculated by the percentage of total body surface area (% TBSA) burned) and the estimated depth of the&nbsp;<strong>burns<\/strong>&nbsp;(superficial, partial thickness or full thickness)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Depth of the Burn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"795\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1-795x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2860\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1-795x1024.png 795w, https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1-233x300.png 233w, https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1-768x989.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1-750x966.png 750w, https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Burn-Depth-Diagram1.png 812w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 795px) 100vw, 795px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Burn depth is classified into one of three types based on how deeply into the epidermis or dermis the injury might extend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Superficial&nbsp;burns&nbsp;(First Degree) involve only the epidermis and are warm, painful, red, soft and blanch when touched. Usually, there is no blistering. A typical example is a sunburn.<\/li><li>Partial thickness&nbsp;burns&nbsp;(Second Degree) extend through the epidermis and into the dermis. The depth into the dermis can vary (superficial or deep dermis). These&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are typically very painful, red, blistered, moist, soft and blanch when touched. Examples include&nbsp;burns&nbsp;from hot surfaces, hot liquids or flame.<\/li><li>Full-thickness&nbsp;burns&nbsp;(Third Degree) extend through both the epidermis and dermis and into the subcutaneous fat or deeper. These&nbsp;burns&nbsp;have little or no pain, can be white, brown, or charred and feel firm and leathery to palpation with no blanching. These occur from a flame, hot liquids, or superheated gasses.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When calculating the extent of burn, only partial thickness and full thickness&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are considered, and superficial&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are excluded.  Burn centers provide special debridement (removal of burnt skin) and wound care to burn patients.  EMS should transport a patient to a burn center who meets the following conditions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>partial thickness&nbsp;burns&nbsp;greater than 10% total body surface area<\/li><li>full thickness&nbsp;burns<\/li><li>burns&nbsp;of the face, hands, feet, genitalia, or major joints<\/li><li>chemical&nbsp;burns, electrical, or lighting strike injuries<\/li><li>significant inhalation injuries<\/li><li>burns&nbsp;in patients with multiple medical disorders<\/li><li>burns&nbsp;in patients with associated traumatic injuries<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Burns&nbsp;are injuries of the skin involving the two layers: the thin, outer epidermis and the thicker, deeper dermis. 86% of&nbsp;burns&nbsp;are caused by thermal injury, while about 4% are electrical and 3% are chemical. A variety of factors guides the evaluation and management of&nbsp;burns. First is the type of burn such as thermal, chemical, electrical or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.georgiaemsacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}